Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Had the girls over for a Crafternoon this past Saturday. If I had been a plant, I would be blooming at this point, which is how badly I needed some chit chatting, some card making, and some glittering. Jean (as usual) brought us a variety of things to work on, which was awesome. I had to make these cards first. Do they not ROCK!!!? I considered sending them but presently I am in the hoarding stage...

The paper is super yummy and is a new Close to My Heart one called Hello Lovely. I also made a layout that I'll be sharing with you this week with the same paper. Initially I thought wedding paper, but they make lovely sweet cards.

The awesome part about Crafternooning besides the great conversations and mint chocolate chip ice cream with whip cream and sprinkles, is using someone else's stamps. You get to enjoy them quite a lot but don't have to buy them. Although...these have me quite tempted. So pretty!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Back last summer, my first day of work with the volunteers was at the previously pink house. I didn't get the story on the owner for quite some time, I just knew we were siding the house. Since pink isn't a standard color in siding choices, someone had convinced her that tan was the way to go and we'd do pink shutters in the same color that the house was originally. See, I can do sentimental and I was totally down with that.

Later there was a story of a divorce and her ex dude spending all the money that was needed to fix the house on gambling. See, Sue was sick. Very sick. She was putting up a valiant fight to live as long as possible with ALS and had moved into the house her Grandma had owned which was pink. Several not for profit groups had decided to merge funding and help her fix up a house that needed a lot. Siding, a roof and a new floor plan inside that allowed for accessibility were all on the agenda. At the time, Sue was walking down her wheel chair ramp with a walker and driving herself to town. We'd all wave, talk for a bit and go back to siding. See, that was also back when she could talk and before ALS robbed her of her voice.

A project that only gets a day or two a week and depends on how many volunteers show up takes a bit of time. This was a good thing though as her son was working on the back of the house. The back porch was tipped and in the process of falling over. It needed quite a bit of work. He also built a little ramp down for the dogs and a dog door. See, Sue was a big part of a local rescue so he was sharing the backyard with some of those rescues, one of whom thought it funny to pee on the post he was working on to level it. I have a theory that Sue always got the very hard luck cases.

The dogs were a big part of the project. When we were in the back, they were in. When we were in they were out. And then there was Puppy. At some point in the fall when we were long past siding, a group called and wanted a volunteer project. Since the garage was still pink, I thought that painting a nice small one story garage would do the trick. My coworker and I went over to check out the garage. There was a huge fence attached to the one side of it and as I was looking over that fence to see the other side of the garage, a rescue dog named Maryjane attacked Puppy, who was Sue's lap dog. I was pretty sure Puppy was a goner.

Sue was old hat at dog fights, but her it took her a minute to wheel herself out on the porch to throw me a spray bottle since nobody was gunna get in the middle of two extremely angry dogs. I of course was yelling my lungs out to get them to stop, but since when does that help a dog fight. Thankfully the spray she threw me worked and she managed to get the much smaller dog Puppy into the house.

I went in to check on them both, heart racing and tears in my eyes. Thankfully Puppy was hanging out on the couch and seemed to be mainly in one piece. I pointed to a tear in his neck to show Sue when the little bastard lunged. Seemed he still had some fight left in him and he bit my finger! From that day onward, every time Puppy saw me he growled, howled, or menaced me in some way. Everyone else could get near him and pet him even. Not me. Even though I saved that little turd's life and have the scar on my finger to prove it, I was the cause of his trouble in his little dog brain.

Right at Christmas, our crew was invited back to paint inside. Several walls had been removed to make the whole downstairs wheel chair accessible. We also painted a bedroom to ready it for a hospital bed. All the while, Sue would call in lunch and try to get us to do shots with some Christmas liquor. It was hard to hear her, so by then she had taken to texting what she wanted to say.

Last week when I was down and out with a cold, I got the very unfortunate text message that Sue had passed. It wasn't unexpected. I mean I totally understood that ALS is a death sentence, but I wasn't ready. We still had a little trim work left to do in her house. I hadn't rushed it because she had left at one point in an ambulance while we were there working and needed to stay in the hospital a bit as she had trouble breathing. As she left, she told us to keep working with a wave of her hand from the stretcher!

I thought that the longer we stretched out the little trim work we had to do, the longer she would stick around to see it get done. Just a couple of days before she passed, friends installed that pretty front door. They video taped it so she didn't have to get up to see it since by then she hanging out in the hospital bed. She truly loved her previously pink house.

Thankfully last week I rallied in time for her Celebration of Life. The room was jam packed and at one point I helped put out more chairs. Sue was one of those people who had a huge impact on the lives of many, including my own. Not to mention they had bar filled with donated bottles of wine and liquor and tables full of food in true Sue fashion.

We did actually do that shot with her. All the bosses came over to check out the mostly finished house one day in January and we did shots at work. That same day she showed us her casket pose with a bunch of fake flowers. She was a one of a kind lady and in fact, all the contractors that worked on her house were terrified because she hinted quite strongly in their presence that one should drag her upstairs for one last fling. She's off to menace the angels leaving her Granddaughter with the house. We wrapped up our trim work and said our good byes but will keep Sue in our hearts. As for Puppy, that's another story. I won't miss him one bit.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Boy I do love my big printer. Add in some shimmer spray to make the ink run and you have a one of a kind background paper. This paper was made from a photo Luke had taken at the museum and really liked, so it was cool using it as a background. In fact, right under the orange washi tape on the left, you can kinda see his hand and part of his body where he was reflected in the glass.

Here is a close up so you can see his hand better. Besides, you wanted a better look at all those good looking young men and women! They fund raised and then convinced First Transit to take them for free and all got to enjoy a trip to Ohio and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Luke really enjoyed his trip. And check out that ribbon! It's upcycled from something else, but worked perfectly!

Just a really simple layout with some fun little embellishments. There really weren't a lot of "good photos" for me to use but it's enough to bring back the day!

Monday, February 20, 2017

Oh rolled beads...who knew you'd be addictive and just the thing my brain needed to jump start creativity last night? They were really quick to cut out and I rolled them using a quilling tool. I covered them in a quick coat of clear nail polish and added an eye pin. The cutting file is sold over at THE CUTTING CAFE and includes nine paper beads. I just cut one kind which turned out to be the perfect creative fix I needed!

The trick is to pick a paper with a little pattern that can show through. Mine had roses that just peek out. I was going for something that worked well with a tea party as I was thinking of Alice and the Mad Hatter. The bracelet was a gift from Yvonne so I knew I had to keep it scrappy if I was going to make any additions to it.

Wore it all day and it made me smile every time I spotted it! Give it a whirl (quilling pun intended) and I'm sure you'll come up with something that pleases you!

I am the biggest baby when I am sick. How anyone puts up with me, especially THE MAN who shouldered the work this weekend with the shuttling of the kid who hadn't left us for Italy to the phone support for the one who had & was worried she would get in trouble for going to the Disco. He even went to the store and grabbed more tissues and some meds. We have been living on take out, which would make the oldest mad to know.

I think I'd be better at a cold if I could only take cold medicine without getting loopy. In fact, I recall an entire conversation where I was telling THE MAN that the dog hadn't filled out his paperwork to work in the basement. Since the dog usually eats paper work and we don't have a basement, I am not sure exactly where I was coming from.

So in the midst of all the sneezing, it was nice to get some hand made Valentines from an Aunt Peaches Swap. Still waiting for the third to emerge from the post, so it was super cool that I also got a lovely card from Sian who hosts us here at Memorandum Monday from her blog at From High in the Sky. I can also assure you that the dog will play no part in eating these pretties! I have big plans for enjoying them for a bit and then possibly adding them to a page!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

A nice wet weekend must have inspired this page with its ink drips and splotches. I am actually making headway on the backlog of pages I want to do from the last six months of activities. I'll be done just in time to get a whole new set of photos from Italy! It was really hard even to get a photo this weekend dodging the raindrops.

Look at this bunch! That is King Brad there in the middle (see the crown?). He had a bunch of activities at his house and was quite popular with the Italian girls who cried when they left him. Loved this photo of them all on skates...

Check out the snowflakes and blue flowers. Thought they worked well to make this page pretty. As does the stenciled x's and o's which look pretty blue. The red splashes work well too! Really digging this color scheme!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Well, today is my 19th Anniversary. Go us! Insert happy dance here. Well seriously we all know what happens when you are this far along in marriage and have teenagers. We spent the weekend running them. When we weren't running, we were grocherying and laundrying. Then we had a bunch of kids over. Don't want it any other way, although I expect at some point THE MAN and I will sneak in something fun with just us. Maybe it will involve a cocktail! (hint hint)

In celebration, I fancied up this BINGO card with a bunch of yummy stuff. Used a pretty little doily as a base and some gold paint. Added gold thread, some fancy trim, and then a bunch of flowers!

The star of this piece are some little letters I had hanging out from a previous project that are sold over at THE CUTTING CAFE and are from the Everyday Words Cards & Shakers set. I laminated three of them together to make a nice thick "LOVE" that I then embossed. So pretty with a little glitter along the edge!

Happy Valentine's Day to you! Hope you have something fun planned, even if it's a hot cup of tea and jammies after a long day! Hugs!

Monday, February 13, 2017

I once worked for a man who was really religious. Like so religious, our letters that came with the news of a bonus thanked God for his bounty, yet forgot to thank the people who also worked really hard. It was OK though for a long while because for the most part, his beliefs didn't really change the day to day. At some point though, I heard mumblings of people thinking other people got promoted due to their church attendance and then the owner told me during lunch that a true marriage was of a man to a woman. Good golly miss molly, this is not appropriate lunch time discussion.

So, faced with the idea of working for another Christian organization I cringed and then turned to Google. Thankfully the place I work is:a global nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization. All who desire to be a part of this work are welcome, regardless of religious preference or background. We have a policy of building with people in need regardless of race or religion. We welcome volunteers and supporters from all backgroundsThis is a good thing because occasionally I tell my boss I believe in Pachamama, the mother earth goddess of Peru. It's also a good thing as I'd hate to see us turn someone away who needs a hand up based on their beliefs. With that in mind, I found myself uttering this simple prayer this past weekend:Dear God:I know you are real busy with the Donald Trump fiasco so I will be brief. Pretty please let me do a shit ton of good for Habitat kicking ass, yet don't lose sight of Pratt Inc. or have lots of debt. Amen.Pretty sure she heard what I was asking. The lots of debt thing is because well, hello not for profit, it's not like our paychecks are monstrous. The rewards though are and that is what I'm sticking with. These musings were written for Memorandum Monday which is a brain child of Sian over at From High in the Sky. The photo is of a few little goodies that came home with me from the ReStore.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

A couple of weeks before our Italian student Martina was due to arrive, we went to a meeting where they offered helpful suggestions as to things to do with our kids. One was take them to a pumpkin patch or do something Halloweenie with them because they don't have that sort of thing in Italy. Fast forward to weekends full of rain...so things were limited to indoor activities. They did manage to sneak in a trip to Kingsbury Cemetery, which is in an old shopping center. Later when asking Martina if she had liked the haunted house, the answer was NO! So, had to scrap the event!

I had a few little tid bits sent my way from Australia & Lizzy who thought I might find them useful. Of course, adding the actual ticket was key! I am so lucky I have a kid who indulges me with those things. The little black tag my sister in law sent me so it's a page of bits and bobs from various peeps.

After the Haunted House, I picked the girls up. Others went to Brad's house and hung out. So, I used both photos. I am pretty sure it was during a school night so I brought them both home.

Anyhow, here you have it! Just a simple page and I got to bring out the Halloween papers out in February!

Monday, February 6, 2017

Yesterday at work I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. It's my fault as we had people working at three different houses. In fact, yesterday evening after dinner, a slice of pie, and a movie, I did my usual and fell asleep on the couch which led me of course to wake up when it's still dark outside. This isn't a bad thing, sometimes my soul needs some quiet and my fingers need to write.

So being awake at butt crack dawn early, I have already used gold paint, my Silly, spray adhesive, my hot glue gun, and started a second cup of coffee. AND, this is why my keyboard is sometimes sticky and has gold paint on it. I am however extremely motivated and ready to tell you about our latest project which is called fondly by the volunteers as either the Red House or Dan's house. Sometime back in the summer at Habitat we got a phone call letting us know someone wanted to sell us this burnt out house on Pritchard. We get a lot of phone calls asking to donate land, sell us a house that is on it's last legs, or even give us a vehicle. We're down with that.

The project hit our radar screen at just the right time. We had just begun work on rehabbing a house we had built six years prior and our volunteers were all a little depressed. Although we hope for a happy ending with each house we build, sometimes life gets in the way. So, when we visited, this house with it's pink rose growing outside, it made us happy even though it was completely gutted, had a huge hole in the back from a fire and was built in the 1920's. The Habitat girls might be a little sentimental themselves....

The Red House has a nice story. The owner's brother wanted to volunteer and knew every inch of the house. Dan had grown up in the house and his sister wanted her good friend (who had applied for home ownership) to live there. To say this little red house is sentimental project is an understatement, which has turned out to be both a blessing and slightly a curse.

For the most part, we're sticking with the layout. We're leaving the cedar shakes and even going to order a door that looks similar down to the mail slot. This is a sleepy neighborhood and everyone is being patient with our dust and mess. It's also a happy house as we are slowly rebirthing it from the fire that gutted it two years ago. Some changes we're making are for the best. We opened up a wall between the kitchen and dining room, we're adding a french door and took down the massive chimney to enlarge the world's smallest power room. We are currently disagreeing over the placement of the cellar door and whether we should add a window in the kitchen as we took one out so we'd have room for the stove. It's really all just semantics really. Just windows and doors.

Soon our new homeowner will hear the sound of mail landing on her floor and the sound of little feet running up and down the steps. She won't be asked a trillion questions like what kind of lighting she wants in the living room. She also won't be working each Saturday on various sweat equity jobs. All in all, it will be over soon and we'll be on to the next one. We'll have a new address, but the homeowner won't.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Oh my, these little tea light holders were so pretty when I spotted them at the ReStore and I had to have them...although I didn't have a plan for them at the time. Good thing Regina over at THE CUTTING CAFE asked us to use her Everyday Words Cards & Shakers and I could make some pretty little centerpieces!

I actually hot glued the LOVE word on tooth picks so I could use it as a back drop to all those pretty flowers and that battery operated tea light. Love those gold wings too! So pretty!

Just a little washi on my tea light and some gold paint! Look how pretty those LOVE words are! I can't wait to share these! I have some ladies at work that will love them! (see what I did there?)

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Goodness, it's like Luke's week for layouts and cards and whatnot....To be honest, I'm getting caught up finally! WOW, the last couple of months a year are so busy! This is a recent photo I snapped though and I wanted to scrap it because it's so fresh!

Had the best time a couple of weekends ago when I went to pick Luke up from Harris Hill where he's part of the Junior Glider's Program. He really does want to fly, even if it's sans engine! He was up helping wax the gliders and prep them for spring. Thankfully he lets me snap a photo now and again.

I used a little decal Luke was sent on this page from the Soaring Society of America. I thought it was cool with the little gliders. Put some copper gears and peachy colored flowers too, because they made me happy.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Eeeek! I love that title! Good thing we were asked to use the word "Today" on our page over at Another Freaking Scrappy or I would have come up with something boring! Fun times on this layout of Luke raising money bowling for CAP. Remember me talking about that earlier this week?

There, a close up! Love that gray plane I cut out for this page! So cool. That background paper makes me happy too!

A close up of the journaling. I snuck in a little ripped piece of green paper there down on the bottom and some gold paint. Loving the simple yet grungy nature of this one!